Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury had a dummy in his pocket.
And he reckons it's his biggest difference between now and then, when he was last in an AFL grand final.
Pendlebury won the Norm Smith medal as best-afield in Collingwood's 2010 premiership.
The next year, he was the Magpies' best player in a grand final loss to Geelong.
So how does this week compare with his past grand final weeks?
"It's a bit different," Pendlebury told reporters on Friday.
"I have got a dummy in my pocket because I have got my young bloke upstairs. He's dancing to Baby Shark, all those types of things.
"The fact that I get to share it with my family ... that is really important."
Pendlebury's son Jax was born in May last year when the Magpies skipper's chances of playing in another grand final appeared remote.
After the 2011 grand final, Collingwood finished fourth the following season. Then eighth, 11th, 12th, 12th again and 13th last year.
Despite the slide, Pendlebury never gave up hope of featuring in another decider.
"I have always had strong belief in where this football club is going, I fully expected to be back at some stage," he said.
Pendlebury and his coach Nathan Buckley were both adamant the Pies had the self-belief to become premiers.
"Any side that gets to the pointy end has stages through the year where they build belief in themselves and they come to understand what they're capable of," Buckley told reporters on Friday.
For Buckley, that stage was set on a Friday the 13th - a round four away game in April against last year's beaten grand finalists Adelaide: the Magpies won by eight goals.
Then the Pies prevailed in a midseason block by, as Buckley put it: "win games we weren't expected to win".
After finishing third, the Pies lost a qualifying final to West Coast in Perth by 16 points before victories against GWS and reigning premier Richmond secured their grand final slot.
"We feel like we're playing our best football now," Buckley said.
"We have continued to explore what that looks like and we have got a fairly strong belief in how we go about it.
"We believe we have been able take some lessons out from when we have fallen short as well, which has given us greater belief to find our best."
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